Printing Prank Gives New Meaning to Squealing Wheels

MONTPELIER, VT—There is no telling what was worse, the fact that a state corrections print shop was able to access an art file to make an unflattering commentary on 30 Vermont State Police cruisers, or that it took four years for anyone to notice.

The common pig, an unflattering reference to police officers that has been out of vogue for at least 30 years, was apparently dusted off about four years ago when a prisoner with access to the art file of the Vermont State Police emblem inserted a pig silhouette into what was supposed to be a cow profile.

In a copyrighted story by the Burlington Free Press, state officials blamed the quality assurance office within the Vermont Correctional Industries Print Shop in St. Albans, VT, for not catching the goof. The state is making Prison Industries—best known for hammering out license plates—pay for the $780 job, which amounted to 60 doctored decals at $13 a pop. That would buy a lot of bacon.